Rail or Car?

You really don't have to catch trains at a specific time but you will pay more for the flexibility of buying tickets as you travel. If you go for the restricted tickets at much lower fares, you indeed will be locked in to specific travel dates and times. In general, there are lots of train runs and they do go from city center to city center. Very efficient. You can rent a car but in the big cities, you will find that finding parking is burdensome and the lots you find will be expensive. Of course, you might be able to find hotels with their own parking areas buy they may charge a chuck of Euros for those spaces as well. For driving in more rural areas, the rental car is just fine. Note, however, that if you drive in Switzerland, you will need a vignette (sticker) on the car. It costs about 40CHF.

From what you have proposed, I would only recommend a car in Normandy and the Loire Valley. Most of the sites that people go to see here are fairly dispersed, with only spotty public transportation to connect them. Depending on your style of travel, a car could be useful in the Rhine Valley, but you could just as easily get around by rail. A car is a useless burden in Paris, Salzburg, Berlin, Amsterdam and Haarlem... probably in Rome, too, but I've never been there.

Cortney, to save time and money if you are using trains you can fly into one city and travel without backtracking, then fly out of your last city. That can be a bit more expensive if you are driving because drop fees in a different country will be very high. If you are driving for 4-5 weeks you should consider leasing rather than renting. You have some pretty long distances in your plan. They will be expensive to drive because the price of fuel is very high in Europe, and in both Switzerland and Austria your car will require a Vignette. CHF40 in Switzerland, as just mentioned, €7.90 for 10 days in Austria, more for a month. You, and all drivers who will drive the car, will require an International Driving Permit. The long distances can be much easier, with no traffic problems, if you take trains or fly - both options can be quite cheap if you plan ahead. French toll roads will be expensive. French non-toll roads will be pretty slow with trucks. Italian toll roads will be expensive. The A1 can be quite a long trip, especially if you are simply doing a round trip to Rome from France, Austria, or Switzerland. Driving in Rome can be a challenge, then you have to park the d*** thing. If you go above Interlaken into the Lauterbrunnen Valley you have to park the car somewhere as the villages above Lauterbrunnen are car free. The Autobahns between the upper Rhine Valley and Berlin can be a challenge. You will need to know the word stau.

"The Autobahns between the upper Rhine Valley and Berlin can be a challenge." Nigel gets the award for understatement of the year.

"it stresses me out thinking about having to catch trains at specific times". And it doesn't stress you out thinking about having to catch planes (like to and from Europe) at specific times? You don't have to catch trains at specific times. On a lot of lines there is a train every hour. Having to catch a train at a specific time is only because you want to see a specific thing at a specific time. I think schedules are a part of traveling. I'm not going to spend $1,000 on airfare and stay awake all night, just to get to Europe and say, "Now what do I do?" I like going to Europe, but I don't have unlimited resources. The less I spend per trip, the more often I can go, and renting a car uses at lot more of those resources than using public transportation.

Courtney, As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend that you both read Europe Through The Back Door. The book has a section on "Rail Skills" and will provide a lot of answers to your questions. The country or city-specific Guidebooks also contain a wealth of information on things like good Hotels, restaurants, sightseeing information, etc. Note that most of Rick's Guidebooks are now available in E-book format. Could you indicate if you plan on visiting the cities/areas in the order that you've listed? Using open-jaw flights would be the most efficient travel method, so you'll need to give some thought to the order of cities and an efficient travel route. Travel by train is usually the fastest and most efficient method, although in some cases budget flights are a good option. Using rental cars is beneficial to reach areas not well served by public transit, or where the travel times or schedules are difficult to schedule. For the Itinerary you've listed, I would not suggest driving! A few things to keep in mind regarding car rentals..... > Renting a car in one country and dropping in another usually has exorbitant drop fees. > When driving in Italy, EACH driver must have the compulsory IDP, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. In Italy you'll also have to be careful to avoid ZTL areas, as EACH pass through these zones results in €100+ tickets. > Opting for a comprehensive CDW (insurance) package is usually a good idea, but it's expensive. > Fuel and parking are both expensive and you'll have to deal with tolls on the Motorways. > For the area you're covering, a GPS along with good Maps would be a really good idea. Good luck with your planning!

Courney, A few more questions..... Have you done any research on which airline you'll be using and which city you'll fly into first? What time of year will this trip be taking place? What sights are you planning to see in each of the locations you've listed?

You are getting some very solid advice here so far. No way do you want a car for any of this itinerary except for Loire Valley and Normandy, where you would definitely benefit from a car. The comments about big drop fees when you pick up and drop in different countries are accurate. I also think you might be better off covering less ground, but traveling more intensively within a few countries. Personally Switzerland and the Netherlands have never appealed to me as much as the other countries listed, but I am sure there are many who would argue those are among the best in your list. Train travel is much easier than car travel if you are going to cities. Problem with driving into cities is getting settled (parking, etc.), and once you are settled, getting in and out. A car makes sense when you are visiting places out in the country and smaller towns. This is what you would find in Loire and Normandy. Long distances on trains may not be that cost effective, but that is more an argument in favor of not covering so much ground that flying (which pretty much wastes a day point to point) or driving (which is often even more expensive.) I have driven on perhaps eight out of twelve trips to Europe, and the more I travel the more I prefer to stick with public transit when I can. That said, some countries it really makes sense to drive: Ireland, Portugal, England, France. This opinion is based upon ease of public transit (or lack thereof) and whether the best stuff is in the cities or country. Ironically those are not the easiest countries to drive in, but they are the ones that are among the most rewarding in my opinion.

Since Rome is really the outlier of your cities, look into a cheap intra-European airline to fly. Zurich (or Geneva, etc.) to Rome, then Rome to Salzburg (or Munich).

Thanks for all the recommendations. Still a lot to think about but I appreciate you helping me start in the right direction.

Sounds like you have a great trip coming up. Looking at your intinerary, the one place that really doesn't fit is Berlin. Get a map of Europe and some map tacks and you will see what I mean. You may want to drop a couple of places to get something that flows better whether you are using a car or a train. Via Michelin is a good source for driving times. Cars are a handicap in big cities but they give you great flexibility when you are out of the big cities especially normandy, the Loire valley and Switzerland. Your amount of time is a good fit for a lease through Renault or Peugeot. You get a brand new car that is insured to the hilt with unlimited mileage. You could fly into Paris, do Paris then pick up your car and work your way down to Rome drop off the car and do Rome and fly home. I fully agree with the warnings that have been prviously given about IDPs and autobahn vignettes but they are minor issues in the grand scheme of things. As for cost of driving, it's not that bad, in September we put 3900 miles on a Peugeot 308 diesel automatic and averaged a tad over 42 mpg. Fuel is expensive but the right car makes it go a long way and very comfortably at that. You mention Interlaken. Please treat it as what it really is ... the gateway to the Lauterbrunnen Valley. The village of Lauterbrunnen is a great base point to see Murren , the Schilthorn, the Jungfraujoc, lake steamers, Ballenberg etc. The most frequent description I have heard for Lauterbrunnen is that,"It's just a little piece of Heaven." Also on the way south from Switzerland, give a thought to driving over the St. Gotthard pass, one of the greatest drives in Europe. Have a great trip.

I'll echo the others that have pointed out the issues with driving and noting that cars are useless and expensive in the major cities. A few more thoughts: Cars are helpful or necessary when traveling in rural areas or small towns. Normandy, Loire Valley, Rhine Valley would count on your itinerary. You can rent a car for each rural excursion. Not sure why catching trains would be stressful, but the stress of driving will be exponentially higher. Traffic, crazy drivers, getting lost, narrow streets, finding parking, etc... Trains are generally very relaxing and comfy and allow you time to rest or read up on your next destination. You say you want to visit big cities but not stay in them. Have you thought that through? For big cities like Paris, Rome, Amsterdam and Berlin, staying outside of the city would mean very long commutes everyday just to sightsee. By car it would be a nightmare as these cities are highly congested and restrict driving. Taking a commuter train would take 30-90 minutes each way depending on where you stay.

Hi Courtney, I apologize if I'm redundant here, but I didn't read all of the posts preceding this one. So, here goes. For the bulk of your trip, I'd go Train. As mentioned above, the Loire and Normandy are kind of tough without a car, so you can either find a tour out of Paris to truck you around the Loire, for instance, or if you're going to spend a few days between the Loire and Normandy, I'd look into a short term rental. I've done this many times in Europe (often while over there) and picked up a car for 3-5 days to reach the locations that are out of my train reach. I take my Travel Agent's (my brother) number with me and call him with details. He calls me back in a hour or so and tells me where to pick it up. Works great every time. If you absolutely know the dates that you'll be there, you can set this up ahead of time if it will stress you out. Learn to drive a stick, if you can't already. You'll likely need that skill.
Have Fun!

I agree with all that's been said so far, but none of the previous responses mentioned the possibility that you might want to drive for part of your trip and not just use the car to get from one place to another. My husband and I have used all kinds of long distance and local transportation options: taxi, subway, streetcar, train, bus, ferry, both short and long term car rental, flights on European airlines, etc. They all work well depending on what you want to do and see along the way. Sometimes renting a car can be cheaper and more efficient than using public transportation, even with a Eurailpass. Sometimes it's just fun, even with some of the issues others mentioned. Last June we combined internal European flights with a 2-week car rental (cheaper pick up and return in Germany) to be able to spend one week each in Lisbon and Florence and 2 weeks driving the Alps through Gerrmany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France. You could put together something similar, using European airlines for internal long-flights, trains for shorter distances, car rental for the places that are best reached by car, and ferries for places that are best seen that way like the Rhine Valley. As others have suggested, your itinerary seems pretty aggressive even for 4-5 weeks, and the distances between some of the cities are quite long, so you might want to consider saving some of it for your next trip.